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Recession Woes Hit UGA Campus

by Patrick Hooper
04/19/2009

College has long been a dream for young people all across the nation. It’s a chance to get away from the tedium of everyday life and escape into a world of new experiences.

Unfortunately for students, their bubble has burst.

“Actually, I did not go anywhere for the break,” said Ashley Brooks, a speech communications major at the University of Tennessee, of her Spring Break. “Instead, I went back to my job from the summer at a local printing office to earn some extra money.”

It’s certainly a far cry from the infamous Spring Break vacations popularized by the likes of MTV or the 2005 film “The Real Cancun.” However, the Spring Break myth may be fading in the light of the recent economic downturn.

Ashley is just one of many students learning to live with the grind of a recession.

Many of the students who did enjoy a slightly more exotic Spring Break lived on a thin dime.

“College students are generally miserly,” said 20-year-old Adam Albano of the University of Georgia. Gone are the days of thinking of himself as a spendthrift. His first choice for a Spring Break vacation had been Mexico, but he discarded it as “really expensive.”

Of course, Spring Break isn’t the only place where students are feeling the pinch.

“I only buy the necessities now, with limited personal indulgence,” said elementary education major Christina Metry of Auburn University. “Everyone should be saving, and that is exactly what I am doing.”

Talk of American’s economic woes has become the toast of news coverage, flooding the airwaves of every channel from CNN to Fox News. President Obama’s controversial stimulus plan, totaling $787 billion, has even prompted the likes of the Pizza Hut franchise’s latest round of bailout-themed commercials.

National payroll employment has dropped by a total of $3.3 million in the last three months alone.

“I look at the upcoming future and what I will be doing after I graduate and I can’t help but worry about what is in store for me,” said Metry.

Her fears may not be entirely unfounded.

National unemployment has reached a disconcerting 8.5% as of April 2009, whereas Georgia’s unemployment rate reached 9.3% in February. It’s a stark contrast to the 5.4% unemployment rate just one year ago.

“The severity of this recession will cause more job loss, more foreclosures and more pain before it ends," said Obama Tuesday. However, the President also assured the public that the recession countermeasures “are starting to generate signs of economic progress."

The recent string of Wall Street rallies, which set off a similar wave of economic improvements in Asian and European markets, has bolstered his claims.

“President Obama and his economic advisors all have strong backgrounds in economics and will obviously handle the issues differently than former President Bush and his advisors,” said University of Florida economics professor Emily Osborne. “It probably will only get worse before it gets better, but in the next year or two, expect policy changes and strong efforts to really have a strong, positive effect on the economy.”